Terri Schiavo's Parents Seek Divorce on Her Behalf
 

Ok, 12 more days until the tube comes out, and then we wait for her to expire.

Anyone want to start a pool on how long the civil suits take to start?

http://www.cnsnews.com//ViewNation.a...20050301a.html

Terri Schiavo's Parents Seek Divorce on Her Behalf
By Jeff Johnson
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
March 01, 2005

(CNSNews.com) - Terri Schindler Schiavo's parents have asked Florida's Second District Court of Appeals to grant their daughter a divorce from her husband, Michael Schiavo. They charge him with a conflict of interest based on alleged adultery.

When Robert and Mary Schindler made the plea Monday to Pinellas-Pasco County Circuit Judge George Greer, he refused to accept any new filings in the case that are unrelated to plans for Terri's death.

Greer instructed Michael Schiavo to wait until March 18 to remove his wife's feeding and hydration tube, beginning the process of ending her life by dehydration and starvation. When David Gibbs III, the Schindler family attorney, tried to file some 15 new motions in the case, Greer refused to accept any that were not related directly to Terri's planned death, including the divorce petition.

But Terri's father, Robert Schindler, said the divorce petition must be considered in order to protect Terri from Michael Schiavo.

"We have filed divorce proceedings because of his total disregard for Terri as his wife," Mr. Schindler said. "He's married to Terri, but he's living with another woman and has two children by her.

"It has become quite obvious that his priorities are not what's in Terri's best interests," Mr. Schindler added.

George Felos, Schiavo's attorney, told the Associated Press, "I think everyone knows the parents are going to try anything, including throwing in the kitchen sink, to frustrate the court's final judgment."

But Gibbs countered that for Terri, "Remaining married to (Michael Schiavo) is an embarrassment."

Michael Schiavo announced his "engagement" in 1997 to the woman with whom he has since fathered two children and currently lives. Since that time, he has referred to the woman as his "fiancee" while remaining married to Terri, the Schindlers argue, so that he can continue to deny her rehabilitation and other therapy and to control her estate.

The motions Greer did agree to consider include requests concerning what might be the final days of Terri's life and the period immediately following her death. The Schindler family wants to be able to take photographs with Terri, something Michael Schiavo has forbidden with Greer's approval. They also want some members of the press to be present while they interact with their daughter to document her actual condition.

Robert and Mary Schindler also want Terri to be allowed to die at their home rather than in the hospice where she currently lives. They have also asked that her body be released to them for burial after her death. Michael Schiavo has made arrangements for Terri's body to be cremated immediately upon her death.

The Schindler family is appealing the new motions in Terri's case to the U.S. Supreme Court, as well.

If Terri's nutrition and hydration is discontinued March 18 in accordance with Judge Greer's instructions, doctors expect her to die from dehydration within a week to ten days. She could potentially survive as long as two weeks, long enough for the effects of starvation to set in.

The feeding tube has been removed twice in the past, once for two days and another time for six days.

Terri Schindler Schiavo suffered a brain injury in 1990 under questionable circumstances. Some physicians claim that her condition is a "persistent vegetative state" brought on by oxygen depravation following a heart attack that occurred as the result of a potassium imbalance caused by an eating disorder.

Other doctors have argued that there is physical evidence of an assault or abuse and that Terri's brain injury is the result of that alleged crime. Felos has denied that Michael Schiavo ever abused or assaulted his wife.

I don't understand what the problem is.

If I were the husband, I would arrange for the parents to take over all care and custody, (and financial responsibility), get a divorce, and be done with it. Move the hell on already.

Unless Terri had a living will (which I don't think she did or this wouldn't be an issue) then IMO, he has no grounds to want to kill her - I mean - let her die. If her parents want to keep her alive and accept that responsibility, then let them. What's the harm in that?

Don't you think her parents are holding onto a pipe dream?

I hope her parents fail once and for all and this woman is allowed to die. What a great husband she has. He's fought so hard just to carry out her last wishes. It's unfortunate her parents are sticking their noses into this. I realize they love her, but they are violating her wishes for their own greedy reasons to keep a shell of her around.

Was it her wish to die of starvation/dehydration over a 2-week period? Did she want to be cremated? If so fine. Otherwise I think the life-giving parents should have more say than an absent husband. See, you should never get married!

Two problems. One: her husband can't get married till she passes on. Two: Her husband sued when she first went comatose and won $1.3M. The money was placed in a trust fund which he will inherit (the balance of) once she passes. Trust funds are private so I don't think anyone knows the balance.

So, her husband wants her dead. Now.

So instead of a divorce, he wants her to die so he can have the money? How much of that trust is going to be left when all her medical bills are paid? Is it really worth all this hassle and bullshit?

This is why you should have a living will.

That's been determined to be the ethical alternative to assisted suicide.

I thought that was the motivation too... but I read an article awhile back on CNN that said the malpractice judgment was more in the realm of 12 million, and that the parents had offered many deals to the husband which gave him as much as 8 million if he would just walk away, and he refused them on the grounds that this was really about the fact that she had told him she would never want to be kept alive artificially. The money is almost all gone now, and he maintains he's never wanted any of it.

that's a reasonable conclusion. don't get married. you might end up in a coma and your husband and parents will be in court for years.

The parents say they see signs of a response from Terri despite doctors' claims that she's not capable. I used to think they were just grief-stricken or delusional, but last night I watched a special on people who have woken from anesthesia during surgery. The paralyzing component of the drug cocktail was working, but not the knock-you-out part. The doctors had no idea any of this was going on.

I assume they're monitoring Terri's brain function and not just going by visual signals, but that show gave me pause.

Here's another facet to the argument, though. If she does come out of her coma, what will her psychological condition be? If she has had some kind of awareness, but was unable to communicate, she's likely to be a basket case. The women on the show who endured the pain of surgery for a few hours were all changed forever. Some were suicidal, all were depressive, and all said that they had been fundamentally changed, never to return to their prior state. Imagine years of it. I think unless she were somehow able to wake up with complete amnesia of the past 15 years, she would prefer starvation.

I feel for the husband. I'm all for standing by your (wo)man, but that's some pressure. I don't think he should have a say anymore, though. He's moved on, and no longer has the emotional stake in this situation that the parents have. Tell him he can have the plug pulled but only if the money goes to the parents, and see what his reaction is.

If Clodfobble's right, and the money's almost gone, that may be moot.

No, he tried to move on.

Add to the mix ... depending on which Save Terry site you read, there's a suspicion that she's in the persistant vegetative state because of abuse by her husband, who has also (before the pulling the feeding tube episode) intentionally restricted care and therapy for her.

Frankly I think she's a green bean in a bed, but I can understand her parents continuing to have hope.

Every report I've read indicates that doctors have found flat EEGs and that large portions of her brain have turned into Cream of Wheat. As with Oakland, there's no "there" there. If these reports are accurate, there will be no miracle wake-up suitable for a Lifetime telemovie.

If _my_ wife was brain-dead, doctors had told me that she was beyond any hope of recovery, but my in-laws were bent on keeping what was left of her "alive" at any cost, you can be damn sure that I'd be fighting to let her go with a little dignity rather than getting a divorce and washing my hands of the matter.

Can I _blame_ the parents for desperately clinging to hope for a storybook ending? Nah. But this case has dragged on far beyond the point of ridiculousness.